Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Taipei Gourmet Lexington

Taipei Gourmet in Lexington has taken over the space formerly occupied by Three Gorges, a run of the mill Chinese restaurant that was completely forgettable. The new owner has previously worked at Formosa Taipei but quit to open this Taiwanese restaurant.

I don't think the interior has changed but it's a nice bright place.

The normal three choices of soup is offered and I choose the Hot and Sour that comes out in a small bowl with a drizzle of chili oil on top. The soup was OK.

I ordered the Lunch Special Flounder Fish Fillet with Szechuan Sauce and the waitress/owner said that it was spicy and I said that spicy is good and she asked if I wanted it extra spicy to which I said YES. When it arrived it has, as you can see, a brown sauce and that is not a good sign. It was just mildly spicy at the most. She offered to redo the dish for takeout when she stopped by later to ask if it was spicy enough and I said that it wasn't spicy at all. I declined, they just opened and everyone is learning but I thought the gesture was nice. The fish on the other hand was cooked perfectly and she later said that she had spoken to the chef.They have some nice things on the menu, The Taiwanese app section looks really good as does the Taiwanese Noodles and Rice section. Some nice priced soups in there as well as things like Fried Chicken Leg over Rice for $7.59 and Pork Chop over Rice, same price.The problem with this place is that you can't really get here from anywhere unless going through either Lexington or Arlington. My GPS took me to 128 to 2 to 4 to Mass Ave and I thought that was complicated but after taking Mass Ave back to 128 I decided that the GPS wasn't that stupid after all.

1 comment:

I remember when this place opened as a Kentucky Fried Chicken, then it was an Italian restaurant for awhile, and then became a succession of Chinese restaurants: New Asia, Three Gorges, and now Taipei Gourmet. The first thing I noticed was that all lunches are the same price, and that most of the menu selections are pretty much the same as they were before. The food is Taiwanese, which is a little different, and the portions are smaller. This is a good thing, because I always have a tendency to eat too much. The service was good, but our favorite waitress Nicole was not there; it is not clear whether she just had the day off of is gone for good.